Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm so, so sorry this is late! I really wanted to get it up Tuesday like normal, but it's the end of the semester and I've been busy worrying about last minute assignments as well as finals, and I also got a job. So Monday consisted of class and then an 8 hour training shift, and I was way too tired to work on it after that.
Good news is, it's up now! Bad news however is, I have run out of premade chapters. That means I now have to try and keep up with the schedule without any chapters already ready to go, which will be a little hard currently. So unfortunately, I may not be able to get these up on schedule anymore, but I will try my hardest! Also, I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than normal, and once-again has no ghost action. That is back next chapter however, and will continue through the rest of the story – I know exactly where everything is going from here!
Last thing, because this is getting to be a long note! Despite the fact that it's probably a terrible idea working on two stories at once when I can't even promise regular updates for this one anymore, I have started work on my sequel to Infected, and will try to get that up soon even though I can't promise regular updates for that either. But I figured everyone has waited long enough, so I hope those who read Infected will enjoy that! Anyways, to my few faithful readers, enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think! Teddy out.
It was a long night at Cisco's apartment. The three members of Team Flash spent several hours pouring over evidence and researching various supposed ways to get rid of the paranormal, and it wasn't until the early hours of the morning when they finally succumbed to sleep. Caitlin was the first one up, stretching and yawning as her eyes blinked open. She rubbed briefly at her cramped neck; she had fallen asleep in an uncomfortable position in an arm chair in the small living room. Her eyes flitted over the rest of the space, searching for the boys. Cisco was lounged on the couch, his laptop still resting on his lap and one arm across his chest, moving steadily with his breaths. Barry was sprawled across the floor, his clothes slightly rumpled and his phone still clutched loosely in one of his hands. Caitlin couldn't help but smile fondly at her two sleeping friends and grabbed her own cell from the arm of the chair, checking the time. It was already after 10:00, and the doctor sighed. She would have loved to let them rest longer; hell, she would have loved to rest longer too, but they had things to discuss, and things to do in preparation for what was to come later that day.
They would be going back into STAR Labs. Their excursion would take place in the light of day this time, in an attempt to make things less terrifying and perhaps less violent, but none of them were looking forward to it. As they had experienced, the spirits could still attempt to harm them even during the day. But there was at least the small hope that they would only actually manifest at night. With a sigh, Caitlin stood and walked over to Cisco and Barry.
"Hey, guys, wake up," she urged, shaking Cisco with one hand and gently nudging Barry with her foot. Barry barely stirred, merely groaning and attempting to roll over. Cisco on the other hand opened his eyes and blinked up at her blearily, sitting up quickly. The motion sent his laptop falling off his lap and directly onto Barry. At that disturbance, Barry yelped and shot up, also blinking blearily and taking in his surroundings. Caitlin couldn't help but chuckle softly at the brief confused look on his face before he remembered where he was. "Morning, boys."
"Mmh, what time is it?" Cisco asked, running a hand through his disheveled hair as Barry sluggishly moved the laptop off of him.
"10:20," Caitlin replied. "I would've let you sleep longer, but if we're going to STAR, I want it done and over with quickly," she added, sitting down beside Cisco on the couch as he scooted over to make room for her. Barry remained on the floor, repositioning himself so that he was facing both of his friends.
"Did we ever really decide what we were doing, though?" the speedster asked, a serious look replacing the sleepy one from only seconds ago. Caitlin sucked in a breath.
"I think we should try the thing Cisco found first," she said. "The smudging thing. It sounds the easiest, and the least dangerous. I think there's less of a chance of making the spirits more angry."
"That was the natural one, right?" Barry asked. "Burning the sage to purify the area or whatever?" Cisco nodded.
"Yeah," he replied. "It sounded like the, ah, most peaceful option." Caitlin and Barry both nodded in agreement.
"But we need to be prepared for an attack," Barry added after a moment. "Just because they haven't shown themselves in the daytime so far doesn't mean they can't or won't, and we've all seen what they can do even without actually manifesting," he said, voicing Caitlin's earlier thoughts exactly.
"How do we prepare for that?" Caitlin asked, fiddling idly with the hem of her shirt.
"Just – mentally, I guess. We need to watch each other carefully. No splitting up this time, even if it makes the process faster. And if it doesn't look like it's working, then…we use the backup option." Caitlin and Cisco nodded solemnly without needing clarification. They both knew what the backup option was, and they weren't eager to attempt it. It had the potential to be a lot more dangerous.
"Okay," Cisco said finally, a look of grim determination set into his face. "We should go buy the items for the smudging, then." Without another word, the three friends stood and made their way for the door. They were gone by the time Barry's phone, left on the floor, started ringing.
Joe sighed and set his phone down on the table after the third time of calling Barry and only getting his voicemail. It was early, only about 10:30 in the morning, but he had expected that Barry would be back by now to provide some sort of satisfying explanation as to what was going on. He wasn't.
"He's really not picking up?" Iris, sitting across from him at the kitchen table, asked in disbelief. Barry practically always picked up his phone, especially if he saw that it was Joe or Iris calling. Joe shook his head.
"No, he's not," he replied with slight irritation, mixed with a boatload of worry. This wasn't like Barry at all. Iris could sense her father's concern, but couldn't do much about it; she was just as worried about Barry as he was, and Caitlin and Cisco as well. Judging by how they had been acting the previous night, coupled with Barry's failure to return home, it was obvious that something was definitely up.
"Can you try Caitlin or Cisco?" she questioned, and Joe shook his head.
"I don't have their numbers." He supposed it was strange, considering they were the ones who had been watching over Barry during his entire nine month coma, but the only number he had been provided with was that of Harrison Wells – and he knew the man was out of town for another day or two at least. There was silence between the father-daughter pair for a moment before Joe stood suddenly, grabbing his jacket. Iris raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm going to look for them," he replied simply, sliding the jacket on.
"I'm coming too," she announced, determination in her eyes. Joe gave her a wary look. Whatever was happening with Barry and his friends, he was nearly 100% convinced it had something to do with the other side of Barry's life – the supernatural side that Iris currently had no knowledge of. And he wanted to keep her knowledge of it as limited as possible.
"Iris –" he started to shut her down, but she shook her head.
"I'm coming, dad," she said. "I'm just as worried as you are." Joe sighed then, knowing full well that he would never be able to convince her to stay home. She was stubborn, especially when it came to Barry's wellbeing. If he said no, she would just go out looking herself, and then he wouldn't be there for her if anything happened.
"Fine," he said, grabbing the car keys and heading for the door. "Let's go, then."
The trio took Cisco's car rather than walking this time. Barry could have sped them to their location easily enough, but Caitlin was insistent that they all needed to save their energy for what was to come, in order to be as alert as possible. Thankfully, the drive to Central City's only spiritual shop wasn't too far of a ride, and they made it before it hit 11:00. As they walked through the doors, they weren't surprised to find that they were the store's only occupants, aside from the middle-aged woman working the cash register. She smiled brightly at the three, delighted with their presence.
"Good morning," she greeted pleasantly. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"As a matter of fact, there is," Barry spoke up for his team, giving the woman a small smile in return. "We're, ah, looking for sage sticks. Do you happen to have any?"
The woman – Beth, they could see on her nametag – nodded without hesitation.
"Yes, of course," she said, still smiling as she stepped out from behind the desk and began approaching the opposite end of the small store, beckoning for them to follow. "If you don't mind me asking, is this for a smudging ritual?" she questioned.
"It is," Caitlin confirmed as they walked after her, all of them stopping as the woman did as well, picking up a bundle of straw-looking material wrapped with thin string.
"Well, this is what you're looking for," she announced, holding it out. Cisco reached out and grasped it in his hand, nodding graciously. "But I'm assuming you've never done this before?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Is it that obvious?" Barry asked with a slight grimace, and Beth laughed softly.
"Kind of. You'll need an abalone shell to burn that in as well, a smudging feather, and another herb or two won't hurt," she said kindly, turning back to the shelf of merchandise she had grabbed the sage stick from and carefully searching for the other materials. "May I ask what you're doing this for?"
Caitlin, Cisco and Barry all eyed each other uneasily.
"Would you believe us if we said spirits?" Cisco asked slowly, and much to their surprise, Beth only nodded again.
"You bet I would," she replied. "A lot of people wouldn't, but I'm well aware of the negative energies that can exist in the world. Sage is good for that kind of thing; it's meant to cleanse and heal. Some cedar wouldn't hurt either. That's used for protection," she added, expertly picking out everything she had mentioned and holding it out to them. She smiled softly as she stood up and saw the surprised looks on her customers' faces, but there was a serious edge to her voice when she spoke next.
"Now, how much do you know about what you're doing?" she questioned.
"We, uh, read some internet articles," Cisco said.
"Not a bad place to start," the woman said, crossing her arms. "It's pretty simple, if you do it right. First off, do it during the day, not night; negative energy is worse at night. You're gonna want to light that sage stick first, make sure it's smoking well. That's when you'll want to place it in the shell with some of the cedar, and use the feather to spread the smoke around all of the areas you want to cleanse. How big of a space are you dealing with here? One room? A whole house?"
"Uhm, a little bigger than a house," Barry said awkwardly.
"A lot bigger, actually," Caitlin piped up, her tone nervous.
"Well, it's ideal to get to every room that's affected, if not the whole building," the woman spoke. "But it's starting to sound like that's not an option for you. So…do your best, okay? I would hate for anything to happen to any of you. This is serious stuff."
"We know," Cisco said quietly, face unpleasant as he recalled the events of the previous night, as well as the past few days. Beth could easily see the distress from looking between the three.
"You know what?" she said. "This stuff is on the house, okay? Don't worry about it. Just let me know how everything goes."
"Seriously? You don't have to do that," Barry tried, but she shook her head.
"I want to," she said. "But seriously, let me know what happens, okay?"
Barry nodded lightly and smiled gratefully. "We will," he promised. "Thank you."
The woman smiled and nodded, and Team Flash headed back out the same way they had come, remaining quiet until they reached Cisco's car once more.
"Do you think that this is going to work?" Caitlin asked softly. "I don't want to try the other thing. The banishing," she said, and Barry and Cisco both immediately looked wary.
"None of us want to,' Cisco said. "So let's just…hope, alright? That's really all we can do. Hope."
Caitlin nodded, biting at her lip as she slid back into the car, the boys following suit.
And then they were on their way back to STAR Labs.
